Cosmonauts Break Record for Longest Russian Spacewalk

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Two cosmonauts set a new record for the longest Russian spacewalk
on Friday (Aug. 16), spending more than seven hours working
outside the International Space Station to prepare it for the
addition of a new Russian-built orbital lab.

Veteran cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Alexander
Misurkin spent a total of seven hours and 29 minutes — a new
Russian record — on a spacewalk to install power and data cables
for a new Russian laboratory module expected to launch to the
space station in upcoming months. NASA cameras beamed
images of the record-setting spacewalk to Earth during the
orbital excursion.

NASA spokesman Rob Navias said the cosmonauts broke a Russian
spacewalking record that had stood for 23 years. Before Friday,
the longest spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts was seven hours
and 16 minutes. It occurred on July, 17 1990 and was performed by
cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Alekandr Balandin to repair
thermal protection gear on Russia's Mir Space Station. [ Most
Extreme Human Spaceflight Records of All Time ]

"Today, that mark eclipsed by Yurchikhin and Misurkin," Navias
said.

Friday's spacewalk was originally supposed to last 6.5 hours, but
Russian flight controllers opted to extend it to allow time to
retract a hand-operated extendable crane, called Strela, back
into place. The cosmonauts initially planned to leave the crane
extended for another spacewalk set for Aug. 22.

Yurchikhin and Misurkin spent most of their time Friday
installing two long power cables and a data cable on an
Earth-facing Pirs docking compartment, which faces the Earth and
will ultimately replaced with the new, and larger, Nauka
Multipurpose Laboratory. Nauka means "Science" in Russian.

The cable installation was hard on the cosmonauts' hands, since
they had to tackle the stiff cables with bulky spacesuit-clad
gloves.

But the work appeared to go smoothly, with Yurchikhin and
Misurkin also installing a materials science experiment on the
station's exterior and a guide line that can be used by future
spacewalkers. At one point, one of the cosmonauts was heard
humming to himself as they wrapped up their work.

Friday's spacewalk was the fourth of five spacewalks planned for
the Expedition 36 crew on the International
Space Station, and the first of two spacewalks scheduled in
August. Yurchikhin and Misurkin will venture outside the station
on Aug. 22 to install equipment for new science experiments.

The Russian spacewalk was the first excursion by space station
crewmembers since NASA aborted a spacewalk in U.S.-built
spacesuits on July 16. That spacewalk, which included Expedition
36 crewmembers Chris Cassidy of NASA and Italian astronaut Luca
Parmitano, was cut short when Parmitano reported a
water leak inside his spacesuit that flooded his helmet with
a substantial amount of water. An investigation into the cause of
the leak is underway.

Yurchikhin and Misurkin wore Russian-built Orlan spacesuits
during their Friday spacewalk and experienced no setbacks with
the gear. It was the seventh career spacewalk for Yurchikhin, who
ended the day with a total of 45 hours and 55 minutes of
spacewalking time. It was the second spacewalk for Misurkin, who
now has 14 hours and three minutes of spacewalking time under his
belt.

While the seven-hour, 29-minute spacewalk was the longest Russian
spacewalk, it is not the longest spacewalk Yurchikhin has ever
performed. In 2007, the cosmonaut spent seven hours and 41
minutes working outside the space station while wearing a U.S.
spacesuit during a 2007 spacewalk with NASA astronaut Clayton
Anderson to toss a huge, empty ammonia tank into space.

The longest spacewalk in history lasted eight hours and 56
minutes and was performed by NASA astronauts Jim Voss and Susan
Helms on March 11, 2001 as they worked on the space station.

Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov performed the first spacewalk in
history on March 18, 1965. That spacewalk for the former Soviet
Union lasted just 12 minutes.